Visitor Mobile Navigation

Visitor Mobile Supplementary

Visitor Mobile Profile

One woman goes from Beyond the Scale to WW Freestyle. Here is her story and thoughts on the new program.

By Hilary Weissman

Ever hear something that sounds too good to be true? Sometimes it’s too good and true. When WW announced it would be innovating the program, I knew this was the change I needed to snap myself back to reality and get refocused.

I tend to hit my stride in tracking all my food and getting into a consistent fitness routine in the fall and winter and usually lose a good amount of weight, but then I get too relaxed once summer hits. This summer was no different. After completing my first half marathon in the spring, followed by lots of traveling, and then illness, I just did not want to think about food anymore. I was so mentally drained— the last thing I wanted to do was track and police myself. But even though it wasn’t on my mind, my food choices sure showed up on the rest of my body.

The clean slate I needed

I decided that testing WW Freestyle™ early would be my clean slate. I mentally made my first Freestyle wellness check-in my new start weight, and went along for the ride. I followed my normal routine to see how my menu would be made over once I started to Freestyle. I’m a breakfast-for-dinner kind of gal, so all my two-egg omelettes came down in SmartPoints® value. It’s my favorite way to end the day when I’ve run out of SmartPoints and my stomach starts to growl. I also love making sweet potato toast and topping it with avocado and eggs or smoked salmon in the morning. Now I don’t think twice when adding in my protein. I make it through the morning much longer before needing a snack.

The biggest change for me is that now I am more likely to track. When the Beyond the Scale™ program introduced the SmartPoints system, it started to guide me toward choosing higher protein foods and really savoring smaller portions of my sweets and richer dishes. Knowing that I don’t have to track every single thing makes it a lot less daunting to do each day. I’ve become so much more honest when I track in My Day, even on Thanksgiving (a 49-SmartPoints day, thank you very much). That second helping of turkey didn’t push my budget or my waistband!

Now I shake things up

It frees me to experiment, too. There were a few weeks that I dipped into the negative values of my weekly Budget (that’s right, even with my fancy new rollovers), and it wasn’t the end of the world. I lost weight those weeks! I was also able to figure out that when I swapped FitPoints, it could lead to small weight gains, so I changed my settings not to swap. I still track all my activity, and I love challenging myself to raise my weekly fitness goals.

When you freestyle in song or dance, it means you get to improvise, go with the flow, and create something exciting and beautiful. I’m able to give myself a little wiggle room to figure out what works best for my body and learn to feel comfortable with the minor setbacks I face because I know they’ll be temporary. In my first seven weeks, I lost 7.6 pounds*!

I’m more relaxed on WW Freestyle than I’ve ever been on other Weight Watchers programs, and I trust that I’ll continue to follow along. I can be more spontaneous and take advantage of all the craziness my city has to offer, and still work the plan. When I know I am going to have a night out, a party to attend, or even a feast waiting for me, I can freestyle it with nourishing ZeroPoint™ foods throughout the day, and really enjoy the taste of quality ingredients like cheese, avocado, and nuts, so that the rest of my Budget can go toward wine or cocktails, and even dessert. Who would’ve thought this kind of freedom could taste so sweet?

*People following the Weight Watchers plan can expect to lose 1–2 lbs per week.